Even by the scuzzy standards of Abel Ferrara’s filmography, Bad Lieutenant is particularly filthy. The film follows the exploits of Harvey Keitel’s unnamed New York City police detective as he nominally investigates the rape of a nun (Frankie Thorn) but largely engages in a series of self-destructive acts involving drugs, alcohol, and abuses of powers. Despite being a Catholic himself, the lieutenant can scarcely show an ounce of sympathy for the nun to his colleagues. Upon hearing of a reward offered for the rapists’ arrest, he explodes, “Girls get raped every day. Now they’re gonna put up 50 Gs just ‘cause these girls wear fucking penguin suits?”
Just beneath this nihilistic surface, however, is a man barely able to tamp down the spiritual crisis that arises not merely from the crime but the victim’s response to it. Not long after the nun returns to her church, she...
Just beneath this nihilistic surface, however, is a man barely able to tamp down the spiritual crisis that arises not merely from the crime but the victim’s response to it. Not long after the nun returns to her church, she...
- 6/5/2024
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Chicago – The Round-Up is back with a quintet of standard DVDs that may have gone unnoticed in your latest Best Buy circular. There’s at least one very good movie in here and a few unique independent offerings that you might want to take a peek at. We wish we had time to cover these titles in more depth, but here are the details - synopsis, cast, features - that you really need to know.
“Horsemen” was released on July 14th, 2009.
“Bad Lieutenant,” “Bart Got a Room,” “Big Man Japan,” and “The Great Buck Howard” will be released on July 28th, 2009.
“Bad Lieutenant: Special Edition”
Photo credit: Lionsgate Synopsis: “Harvey Keitel is a nameless New York cop, hopelessly addicted to drugs, gambling, and sex. As he makes his way to various crime scenes, he is concerned only with taking bets from his fellow cops on the outcome of the ongoing National League playoffs.
“Horsemen” was released on July 14th, 2009.
“Bad Lieutenant,” “Bart Got a Room,” “Big Man Japan,” and “The Great Buck Howard” will be released on July 28th, 2009.
“Bad Lieutenant: Special Edition”
Photo credit: Lionsgate Synopsis: “Harvey Keitel is a nameless New York cop, hopelessly addicted to drugs, gambling, and sex. As he makes his way to various crime scenes, he is concerned only with taking bets from his fellow cops on the outcome of the ongoing National League playoffs.
- 7/27/2009
- by [email protected] (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
'Bad Lieutenant'
Recap review to run on Dec. 30
This film was was originally reviewed Sept. 16 at the Toronto Festival of Festivals. It opens today Dec. 30 in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre.0303Members of the gutter-al elite -- those whose stomachs and moral fortitude are such that they can endure the rape of a nun, kinky sex, drug excesses, four-letter bombasts and other sub-''Mean Streets'' reality -- will be the sole survivors of this NC-17 blast.
With Harvey Keitel strutting his stuff as a strung-out New York City cop, ''Bad Lieutenant'' should bag some early cult-house dough, primarily from those cineastes still harkening back to Keitel's ''Mean Streets'' turn, but this blunt and preachy salvo is more likely to stir up mostly revulsion at the boxoffice. Exhibitors should be prepared for some -- to put it mildly -- colorful criticism from early-departing moviegoers.
A religious fable (the characters are named in high-stilt, morality-play simplicity -- Bad Lt., Nun, even Jesus), ''Bad Lieutenant'' is a hammer-and-trigger story blast of personal and moral redemption. In this salvo, Keitel stars as Bad Lieutenant, a junked-out jerk whose vices make Michael Douglas' ''Basic Instinct'' character look like an altar boy. Bad Lt. bullies women, steals evidence, sniffs coke and swills vodka, but his biggest weakness is for a Strawberry -- namely, ex-Mets slugger Daryl Strawberry.
Indeed, gambling is the little grunt's Achilles' heel. He gets in over his head fast on a Dodgers vs. Mets playoff, ultimately putting up 120 G's on the Dodgers to win the National League playoffs.
(boy, can you ever tell this was written a while ago).
Between whoring, betting, drinking, sniffing and strong-arming, this silver-badged slug does manage to notice one case: a beautiful nun (Frankie Thorn) has been gang-banged by local lowlife. Despite his hatred of organized religion -- ''The Catholic Church is a racket'' -- Bad Lt. gets mad. Or, rather, he gets confused when the Nun tells him she forgives her transgressors. While Bad Lt.'s drug-clouded sensibilities do not allow him to appreciate Christianity's turn-the-other-cheek theory of forgiveness, it does stir his street-fried brain.
Those viewers who survive director Abel Ferrara's graphic onslaught of sewer life will be jarred by clanky, sermonette-ish segments: The Nun talks about forgiveness; the Bad Lt. rants about retribution; even a hopped-up hooker delivers some morality parables.
The moral capper in Zoe Lund and Ferrara's scattergun screenplay is when the Bad Lt. hallucinates and sees Jesus: It's not exactly Saul on the Road to Damascus stuff, aesthetically or theologically, but it is well-lit -- we're talking lighting here, not philosophy.
While some viewers may chortle about the narrative's about-face ending, no one will question the veracity of the outcome of the Mets. vs. Dodgers subplot.
Keitel, as usual, flexes his impressive range: fear, swagger, charm, while Thorn is well-cast as the charitable Nun.
Technically, ''Bad Lieutenant'' is good: Ken Kelsch's in-your-face cinematography and Anthony Redman's punchy editing are appropriate.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
This film was was originally reviewed Sept. 16 at the Toronto Festival of Festivals. It opens today Dec. 30 in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre.0303Members of the gutter-al elite -- those whose stomachs and moral fortitude are such that they can endure the rape of a nun, kinky sex, drug excesses, four-letter bombasts and other sub-''Mean Streets'' reality -- will be the sole survivors of this NC-17 blast.
With Harvey Keitel strutting his stuff as a strung-out New York City cop, ''Bad Lieutenant'' should bag some early cult-house dough, primarily from those cineastes still harkening back to Keitel's ''Mean Streets'' turn, but this blunt and preachy salvo is more likely to stir up mostly revulsion at the boxoffice. Exhibitors should be prepared for some -- to put it mildly -- colorful criticism from early-departing moviegoers.
A religious fable (the characters are named in high-stilt, morality-play simplicity -- Bad Lt., Nun, even Jesus), ''Bad Lieutenant'' is a hammer-and-trigger story blast of personal and moral redemption. In this salvo, Keitel stars as Bad Lieutenant, a junked-out jerk whose vices make Michael Douglas' ''Basic Instinct'' character look like an altar boy. Bad Lt. bullies women, steals evidence, sniffs coke and swills vodka, but his biggest weakness is for a Strawberry -- namely, ex-Mets slugger Daryl Strawberry.
Indeed, gambling is the little grunt's Achilles' heel. He gets in over his head fast on a Dodgers vs. Mets playoff, ultimately putting up 120 G's on the Dodgers to win the National League playoffs.
(boy, can you ever tell this was written a while ago).
Between whoring, betting, drinking, sniffing and strong-arming, this silver-badged slug does manage to notice one case: a beautiful nun (Frankie Thorn) has been gang-banged by local lowlife. Despite his hatred of organized religion -- ''The Catholic Church is a racket'' -- Bad Lt. gets mad. Or, rather, he gets confused when the Nun tells him she forgives her transgressors. While Bad Lt.'s drug-clouded sensibilities do not allow him to appreciate Christianity's turn-the-other-cheek theory of forgiveness, it does stir his street-fried brain.
Those viewers who survive director Abel Ferrara's graphic onslaught of sewer life will be jarred by clanky, sermonette-ish segments: The Nun talks about forgiveness; the Bad Lt. rants about retribution; even a hopped-up hooker delivers some morality parables.
The moral capper in Zoe Lund and Ferrara's scattergun screenplay is when the Bad Lt. hallucinates and sees Jesus: It's not exactly Saul on the Road to Damascus stuff, aesthetically or theologically, but it is well-lit -- we're talking lighting here, not philosophy.
While some viewers may chortle about the narrative's about-face ending, no one will question the veracity of the outcome of the Mets. vs. Dodgers subplot.
Keitel, as usual, flexes his impressive range: fear, swagger, charm, while Thorn is well-cast as the charitable Nun.
Technically, ''Bad Lieutenant'' is good: Ken Kelsch's in-your-face cinematography and Anthony Redman's punchy editing are appropriate.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 12/30/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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